Major updates to BPG system at Marie Stopes International

Back in 2010 everyone at dreamm was celebrating the successful integration of the Best Practice Gateway (BPG) system to Marie Stopes International (MSI). This global charity is a leading provider of sexual and reproductive healthcare services, helping millions of women seek professional care, information and advice. They employ a huge number of staff around the world so required a smart, accessible place to store and share information.

BPG is an internal, multi-lingual document storage system where MSI staff find all the information they need in one place. Four years on and BPG proved so successful a full overhaul was required to keep up with demand.

Using BPG, employees search the vast library of content on the resource management section and download relevant documents on best practice. Staff can also upload documents, whether it’s a PowerPoint or simple URL, to share their knowledge. The interactive data centre allows staff to search using different metrics and generate detailed graphs clearly depicting all the information.

The popularity of the system meant so much content was uploaded it required a smarter way of accessing all the information.

So, mid-2013 we began a major renovation project, starting with the search function, which now works in a much more intelligent way. Previously you had to know the exact name of the document, but now all the documents are tagged and categorised, allowing you to research more complex queries. It also has a spell check to direct staff to the correct place.

“The system now runs a lot faster and we have updated the look and feel, so everything is presented clearly,” says Paul Barrass, lead developer on the project. “The Standards and Guidelines area, which used to sit on another site, has been merged into the system. We have also integrated the system with Microsoft Windows logins, so staff members have access without having to remember yet another username and password.”

There are now plans to integrate yammer (an enterprise social networking / communication tool) to the system, so staff members can comment on documents and start conversations over resources.

“All these overhauls have been designed to make the system more flexible and streamlined,” says Paul. “They reduce any friction to encourage staff to take advantage of the internal information, allowing them to be more productive and efficient, without having to spend ages searching for the information they require.”